During Advent, I’ve been reading a book called Let God: Spiritual Conversations with François Fénelon [Dirty Paper Press (2023)]. The author, Winn Collier, translated Fénelon’s work from French into English, and organized the letters under eight overarching questions to help modern readers digest the content and benefit from Fénelon’s wisdom and spiritual guidance. A short letter from the book is part of this devotional.
Later he moved to a church in another part of France, farther away from the royal trappings. However, he maintained connections with several younger friends he knew at Versailles and seems to have become a spiritual guide or mentor for them. They communicated via letters. The young friends asked Fénelon for advice on a variety of topics and Fénelon responded. The letters sent by the friends are lost to history, but Fénelon’s responses have been preserved.
These are personal correspondences where Fénelon is responding to urgent concerns from his friends. He’s does’t wax philosophic in his replies, rather he offers practical guidance to real people on how to live the Christian life in the challenging context of the royal court of Louis XIV—not unlike the Epistles in the New Testament.
The themes Fénelon emphasizes in his letters, such as peace, hope, love, humility, simplicity, obedience, and dying to self, are found throughout the Bible – especially the stories we read during Advent and Christmas. The archetypes we encounter in the birth narratives (Luke 1–2, Matthew 1–3) exemplify these qualities: Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, the Wise Men – and of course, Jesus.
What Fénelon did in the 17th century would be like someone offering wisdom on how to be faithful to God in King Herod’s court or living under his brutal rule – which is in fact the essence of what the Gospel of Matthew’s birth story is all about. Joseph shows the readers faith and obedience in contrast to how Herod (the King) behaves. {Luke does something similar, but the “evil empire” is Rome ruled by Caesar Augustus.)
With this background in mind let’s turn to the reading from Let God…
As you read this what Advent or Christmas themes or stories come to your mind?
To a Spiritually Lethargic Friend [Let God, p. 53]
[Fourth Conversation: What do I do when I’m broken down?, p. 53]
Dear Friend,
Peace… Just sit in it. It’s not your job to work up passion and fiery devotion for God. It doesn’t depend on you. All you can do, all you are responsible to do, is to choose the one whom you will obey. Hand your will, your obedience, over to God. Don’t hold anything back.
Frankly it’s irrelevant how much intense feeling you have in your spiritual life right now. The most important question to ask: Do I want what God wants? Humbly confess your faults, Don’t hold onto your world. Abandon yourself to God. Choose to love God more than you love yourself. Desire God’s name to be made great. Desire God to have God’s way—want that more than you want your own life. If you don’t feel these things, then just want to feel it, hoping you will someday. In the meantime, ask God to give you this kind of love for him. God will love you and he will pour peace into your heart.
In the letter Fénelon advises his protege to “Abandon yourself to God.” I see Mary doing this after the Annunciation, when in the last verse ) she answers Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant, let it be as you say”—Luke 1:38.
Two lines later, Fénelon goes on to instruct his spiritually lethargic friend to: “Desire God’s name to be made great,” This makes me think of Mary’s Magnificat, the revolutionary statement (likely a song) she offers up after she visits Elizabeth, and receives comfort and confirmation from her older, wiser, relative, which seems to help Mary come to terms with her role. if she wasn’t sure before, she now fully accepts she will become theotokos – the God bearer – and the human mother of Jesus the Christ, the Savior of the World. Mary’s song recognizes the kind of Messiah Jesus will be:
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowy state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
But the rest of the second paragraph of Fénelon’s letter resonates with my perception of Mary too. I imagine she must have still been in some ways struggling as a young unwed woman to fully embrace her role and, to believe the miraculous message, accept it, and obey without too much questioning, praying for God to to “pour peace” into her heart.
In the end all she has to do (and all we have to do) is, as Fénelon says in the opening of his letter to his friend: “Peace, Just sit in it… Choose the one whom you will obey Hand your will, your obedience, over to God. Don’t hold anything back.” Simple, right?!
I think that this in a nutshell is the challenge of Christmas. Are we up for it?
